July/August 2008
Around the Quads
Campus News
KAVLI PRIZE: Columbia scientists Louis E. Brus and Thomas Jessell were among the first recipients of the Kavli Prize, announced on May 28 at the opening of the World Science Festival in Low Library. They are among seven pioneering scientists who, according to the Kavli Foundation, have transformed and advanced the fields of nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics. The winners, who hail from the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States, will each receive a scroll and medal and share the $1 million prize awarded under each category.
Brus is the Samuel Latham Mitchell Professor of Chemistry and professor of chemical engineering, and Jessell is the Claire Tow Professor in Neuroscience & Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at the Medical Center.
The prize is named after and funded by Fred Kavli and is a partnership between the Kavli Foundation, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.
’68 REVISITED: Hundreds of alumni and guests participated in a four-day conference on campus that marked the 40th anniversary of the students protest of Spring ’68. The gathering, organized by a group of alumni participants in the events, included several panel discussions about various aspects of the protests as well as broader issues of race, war and the role of the university; readings by several writers from that period; and screenings of a number of films of the events that have been completed or are in production. According to organizers, an archive of the Columbia 1968–08 conference is under construction and will be posted online this summer. For information, click here.
JAY PAPERS: The Columbia University Libraries recently received a one-year, $150,000 grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission for continued support to produce a series of unpublished papers of John Jay (Class of 1764), America’s first Chief Justice, architect of the Treaty of Paris and an author of The Federalist. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is producing a multi-volume scholarly edition of Jay’s papers, The Selected Papers of John Jay, designed to revise and complete work begun in the late 1950s by Richard B. Morris, an eminent Jay scholar and Columbia professor, who supplemented the major collection of original Jay Papers at Columbia with copies of Jay documents secured from archives throughout the world. The project complements the online database The Papers of John Jay.
In Lumine Tuo
ELECTED: Five Columbia professors recently were elected to the 2008 Class of Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. They are Peter Bearman, the Cole Professor of Social Science; Richard A. Friesner, professor of chemistry; Orhan Pamuk, professor of comparative literature (and 2006 Nobel Prize winner); Paul G. Richards, the Mellon Professor of Natural Sciences; and Pedro Sanchez, director of the Tropical Agriculture Program.
Three Columbia professors have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences for their excellence in original scientific research. They are Paul E. Olsen, the Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; Carol Prives, the DaCosta Professor of Biology and an American Cancer Society Research Professor; and Gary Struhl, professor in the Department of Genetics and Development at P&S and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
DELBANCO: Adjunct Assistant Professor for Art History and Archeology Dawn Delbanco was confirmed by the Senate in March for a six-year term on the National Council on the Humanities. Delbanco teaches Western and East Asian art and has curated an exhibition of ritual Chinese bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections at the Fogg Art Museum. She also has published on other aspects of Chinese art, including painting, woodblock prints and snuff bottles.
FRISCH: H. Harold Gumm/Harry and Albert von Tilzer Professor of Music Walter Frisch has been honored with the 15th annual Wm. Theodore de Bary [’41] Award for Distinguished Service to the Core Curriculum by the Heyman Center for the Humanities. Frisch is director of Music Humanities for the Department of Music.
KESSLER-HARRIS: R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History Alice Kessler-Harris has been named v.p. and president-elect of the Organization of American Historians. Kessler-Harris, who also is a professor in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender.
SLAUGHTER: Joseph Slaughter, professor of English and comparative literature, was awarded the 2008 Wellek Prize by the American Comparative Literature Association for his 2007 book, Human Rights, Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law. The prize recognizes outstanding work in the field of literary and cultural theory and is given in alternate years.
Transitions
ALUMNI OFFICE: Director of Operations Nona Russell ’85 SIPA retired from Columbia in April after 29 years of service. Russell previously worked at GSAS in the operations and financial affairs department. At the Alumni Office, she oversaw operations, human resources, finance and administration. Many Columbians will know Russell from her yearly march as a Commencement marshal, while her vast knowledge of Columbia personnel and systems made her a valued asset to the Alumni Office and all her colleagues.
SIPA DEAN: John Coatsworth has been appointed dean of the School of International and Public Affairs. He had been serving as acting dean during the past academic year. Coatsworth is a leading expert on Latin American economic and international history. He joined Columbia as a visiting professor in 2006–07 and joined the faculty in 2007 before becoming acting dean.